Good morning, RVA! It's 62 °F, and today looks like another great weather day. Expect highs around 80 °F with maybe less sunshine than yesterday’s stunner. We’ve got at least another day and a half of excellent weather, so enjoy it before weekend weather rolls in and dumps buckets on us.
Water cooler
Yesterday, Governor Youngkin signed Executive Directive Number Five which starts the process of ensuring “the responsible, ethical and transparent use of artificial intelligence technology by state government in order to protect the rights of Virginians and develop targeted, innovative uses for this emerging technology to help deliver a best-in-class state government.” The directive is short and worth reading, but if PDFs scare you, you can read the press release instead. Basically, it does two things: It asks the Office of Regulatory Management to, first, come up with some AI best uses and practices for state government, and, second, to identify some areas for piloting and testing AI—all by mid December. I think this is fascinating! The directive focuses mostly on state agencies and employees but also wants to how AI impacts K–12 education, too. And also this weird sentence, which sounds like a way to sneak more fossil-fuel power plants into unrelated recommendations: “Work with the Virginia Department of Energy to better understand the impact of Al on our power generation requirements within the Commonwealth resulting from the expected increase in energy demands due to the growing computing capacity requirements necessitated by increased adoption of AI.” Anyway, really interesting stuff, and, with a report due out right before winter break, I can’t wait!
Ben Paviour at VPM reports on the commonwealth’s new voter data-sharing agreement, a sort of haphazard thing cobbled together after the Governor forced Virginia out of its partnership with the Electronic Registration Information Center. I like the way Paviour tees it up: “The Virginia Department of Elections announced Wednesday it signed agreements with five states and the District of Columbia to share voter data. The move comes after the commonwealth quit a multistate partnership that is the target of right-wing conspiracy theories.” After reading through this piece, I definitely recommend that everyone check their vote registration status over on the Virginia Department of Elections website.
City Council’s Finance and Economic Development committee will meet today, and you can find their full agenda here. They will almost certainly recommend for approval RES. 2023-R048 which expresses both the Mayor and City Council’s support for dedicating all of the one-time Casino 2.0 money towards child care-related programs: $14 million for two new early child care centers on the Southside, $8 million for parks projects, and $4.5 million into a new Child Care and Education Trust Fund. Remember, unlike ordinances, resolutions don’t become laws. This is just a way for everyone to publicly get on the same page about what they would do should Casino 2.0 pass its (second) referendum. Also, to put that $26 million into context, remember that the folks behind Casino 2.0 have dropped more than $8 million, over a third of that one-time total, into their pro-casino PAC ahead of November’s election. There is A LOT of money floating around this deal. Unrelated, but also on the Committee’s agenda, RES. 2023-R050 which supports moving the City’s retirement system over to the Virginia Retirement System, the same place that provides retirement benefits to state employees. I think that’s interesting and wonder what kind of impact it could have on recruitment and hiring. If you want to know the answer, I bet it can be found in this 132-page PDF presentation!
Jonathan Spiers at Richmond BizSense has a tiny piece of cool Fall Line Trail news, as Henrico starts working on their segment of the trail in earnest. Spiers reports that, back in June, the County bought the former Bank of America building at 4921 Lakeside Avenue to serve as a trailhead facility. Buying up an existing building means easy access to parking, bathrooms, and water—the latter two especially important for people walking, rolling, or riding through. I am so stoked to start seeing pieces of the Trail start to come together!
This is your day-of reminder that Breakaway RVA will host their September group ride tonight! Meet at the roundabout in Jefferson Park, bring lights and water, and plan for wheels up at 6:00 PM. Stick around for a post-ride hang at Union Market—if bikes and buds (pedals and pals?) appeals to you. As always, this event is free, fun, and chill enough that you may not even sweat through your shirt given today’s weather.
This morning's longread
Beauty Filters Aren’t Trying to Fool Anyone
Well this is a surprisingly thoughtful essay on Instagram/TikTok filters.
Katirai was an influencer with an online jewelry store before she started making filters. Her big break came just a few months in. She was breastfeeding her daughter one early morning when she saw an Instagram story of Kylie Jenner with pastel butterflies in her hair. Katirai spent the next eight hours making a filter in a similar style, left a comment on Kylie’s post, and got a DM from Kylie Cosmetics shortly after. She subsequently became the company’s primary filter designer, and has gone on to work with other major brands like Nars and Laura Mercier. Katirai had long enjoyed using makeup for self-transformation, and sharing the beauty of cosmetic play is her favorite part of her job. “This is something that made me feel really good,” she told me, “like I was sending people happiness.”
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Picture of the Day
I always forget about these alien-looking hurricane lilies until, bang!, they’re back!
